A cool summer for UK tourism

From the dismal weather to ugly riots that have been broadcast around the world, it has been a challenging summer for those UK businesses that rely on the tourism pound.

It couldn’t come at a worse time: tourism providers and hospitality businesses had been pinning their hopes on a bumper season to compensate for a wash out earlier in the year. 

Going into the summer, one tourism expert had told BBC News that tourism in the South West of England was at its "lowest point for 10 years". Bear in mind that this is a region that depends heavily on holidaymaker spending.

But it’s not just the South West. I’ve been hearing a similar story from businesses up and down the UK: they really needed a strong summer to compensate for a weak start to the year, amid a cost-of-living crisis and the national living wage rise in April.

But it hasn’t been forthcoming. One of the consequences of the bad weather has been a tendence to put off holiday decisions until the last minute – scrutinising weather apps – before heading overseas. That’s certainly what I decided to do, wary of booking a break in the UK long in advance and being at the mercy of the weather. I’m clearly not the only one: ABTA, the travel trade organisation, reported that many people took last minute holidays overseas this summer.

It’s not only the recent weather that has held back summer visits to UK holiday hotspots. People living in the UK have been taking fewer staycations since the Covid pandemic. Instead, they’ve taken the opportunity again, post-pandemic, to return to foreign favourites such as Spain, Greece and Italy.

Foreign tourists have also been avoiding the UK, for several reasons. For one, high-spending overseas visitors have been deterred from visiting after the government scrapped tax-free shopping in 2021.

Another reason, also linked to policy, is the Brexit law change banning Europeans from travelling to the UK with only a national identity card, and instead requiring a passport. This adds an extra layer of hassle that some travellers would rather avoid.

For travellers from China in particular, the high cost of visas to travel to the UK compared with countries such as the US, may be holding them back.

And then there are some negative perceptions of the UK. Even before the recent riots, the UK was already struggling to give the impression of a welcoming place for overseas visitors: the UK’s “welcome” ranking fell to 19th place out of 60 nations in the last Anholt-Ipsos report – the lowest ever received for this measure.

This perception is likely to have worsened after the recent rioting, particularly given its xenophobic nature. The violence and disorder, which has been reported by the press all over the world, even prompted some countries to issue travel alerts to their citizens, warning them of the dangers of visiting the UK.

That said, visitors from some nations are still coming. American visitors to the UK spent a record-breaking amount in 2023, up 28% on 2019, and they are still coming to these shores.

There are other small sources for optimism. Budget hotel groups such as Premier Inn have benefited at the expense of other pricier accommodation providers. In addition, inflation has been easing and we’ve finally seen interest rates start to fall, so even if businesses aren’t able to drive revenues, at least their costs are going down. 

Another small positive sign came in July in the form of Visit Britain’s recent Domestic Sentiment Tracker: 77% of those surveyed intended to take an overnight domestic trip over the next 12 months. This was up from 75% in July 2023. It’s likely many of those people were planning a city break – given an urban weekend is typically considered less weather dependent than a stay by the coast.

Some of the Britons who are planning a domestic trip may be purposely seeking to avoid overseas destinations they would have previously favoured: heat waves, forest fires and anti-tourist protests in places like Mallorca may make some people think twice about getting on a plane.